Bruce Smith of Alpine Valley School has spent 15 years (a whole third of his life) working with a particular variety of alternative school, modeled on the Sudbury Valley School.

In this recording, Bruce Smith speaks to an audience at Clearview Sudbury School about what he has learned on this path. He speaks of the challenges students, parents and staff face, as well as the robustness of the Sudbury model and the satisfactions that come with it.

The Sudbury model of education trusts students as individuals capable of facing fundamental questions of existential and practical origin. Children choose what to do with their time and are given full access to the resources of the school through direct democracy. Though established over 40 years ago by the Sudbury Valley School in Framingham Massachusetts, this model is still new and experimental in the eyes of many who have never heard of it. Generations of graduates from an increasing number of Sudbury schools are exposing the sound foundation that this model of freedom, trust and respect is built upon.

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